Russia separates its Internet from the rest of the world while taking protective measures

PThe riders plan to temporarily disconnect the Russian Internet from the Internet in order to increase the control of information flows by the government.

A group of large private and state-owned telecommunications companies, led by Natalya Kaspersky, co-founder of the US government-banned anti-virus maker Kaspersky Lab, has decided to run the test to separate "Runet" sometime before April 1

This is the deadline for amending the "sovereign Internet" legislation that supposedly allows Russia to protect itself from foreign aggression in the digital domain.

In particular, the legislator is concerned that Western accusations of Russian hacking could lead to retaliatory attacks and attempts to isolate the Russian Internet on command.

The bill would require that telecommunications be able to redirect all traffic through control centers controlled by the Russian state and hamper the flow of information to overseas networks.

Experts believe, however, that developing such comprehensive features would be, if not impossible, at least extremely expensive and could lead to significant disruptions to Internet operations.

There is also a danger of censorship as the system is overseen by the Roskomnadzor state communications regulator, which has become known for banning both extremist speech and criticism of the Kremlin. It will be able to filter out foreign content that it does not like.